Iran’s biggest shipping line is moving quickly to take a place in global shipping trade lanes. Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines hopes to start bi-weekly service connecting India, Iran and Europe this month, the WSJ’s Costas Paris reports. The carrier has a new space-sharing agreement in place with French container line CMA CGM, one of many ties Iran’s transport operators are forging with the West under a nuclear pact. For now, IRISL is sailing into a tough shipping market. But the moves are likely to have an impact across Middle Eastern and Mediterranean trade lanes over the longer term. And by linking up with Western companies, the carrier is trying to extend its reach beyond the immediate region efficiently and, most important, rapidly.

SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES

The Port of Newark in New Jersey.
Photo:
Bloomberg News

The trucking world’s battle over the classification of independent contractors is spreading.
Flowers Foods Inc.,
which owns the Wonder Bread and Tastykake brands, faces lawsuits in more than a dozen states by truck drivers who claim they should be counted as company employees, WSJ Logistics Report’s Erica E. Phillips writes. The suits come drivers in various sectors, including operators for FedEx Ground, have successfully challenged their status. Several trucking companies operating at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach—including, most recently, three subsidiaries of
XPO Logistics Inc.
—are engaged in similar litigation with independent-operator drivers. The Flowers suits target distribution operations overseen by a shipper, however, and may have an impact on other companies that manage logistics operations that use contract drivers.

QUOTABLE

“
This is déjà vu for retailers, and an unwelcome start to 2016.
”

—Kelly Kolb, Retail Industry Leaders Association vice president, on the walkout at the Port of New York and New Jersey